Monday, March 26, 2007

Today at 7:30 pm Kenyon Review Editor David Lynn will be at the Bethesda MD Writers Center to talk about "Dizzying Change on the Literary Scene." The talk will be followed by a question/answer session and a reception. Free admission. (The summer 2004 issue has my short story, "The Building of Quality". There's an online Kenyon Review interview about my work here.) This is sure to be a fascinating lecture. If you're interested in publishing literary fiction and poetry and you are anywhere in the Washington DC metropolitan area, you'd find it well worth your while to attend. More anon.

Note: some dogs also like to eat fruit such as bananas and apples. (Careful: do NOT give your dogs onions or chocolate, as both are toxic to their systems).

Clearly, dogs can eat our leftovers---- as long as (common sense) the food is not overly spiced or containing onion or chocolate or troublesome little bones. Actually, dogs have always eaten our leftovers. The most unnatural thing is kibble! I don't buy the argument that it's cheaper than homecooked food--- after all, if your dog gets cancer or kidney failure, the vet bills can go well into the triple digits. There's plenty more to say about it.

My pug has been on this diet for 7 years and is in excellent health.

According to Rudi Edelati's Barker's Grub (our recipe Bible) different breeds do better on certain foods. All dogs can eat a wide variety of foods, however, for example, pugs do especially well with barley and beef (very true in our experience). Airedales do especially well with fish, beef, carrots, potatoes, cabbage and oats. Labradors do especially well with fish, poultry, lamb, dairy, wheat, olive oil and green vegetables.

I feed my dog three times a day. The dogs I had before (who died of old age) were fed once per day, and that worked well also. But I think the smaller, more frequent meals are easier on her digestive system.

I throw it all in a big pot and boil it up, then mix, then freeze in plastic tubs (and thaw as needed). I also sometimes cook the meat in the oven. Additional benefit: I find that I end up eating more fresh vegetables and soup myself as a result of cooking for my dog!

Update: Lots of information on the blogs. Read a bit into this one for some very interesting thoughts. She writes, "Am I the only person questioning all these diverse foods being made in the same location? How can a more expensive and theoretically higher quality food be made side-by-side with lesser products? If this one gigantic food plant was making food for all those different companies, then where is the quality control or oversight by the companies whose names are on the cans? Who would be the watchdog to oversee that the origin of the ingredients and their processing wasn't the same for all of them and packaged differently? If each brand was actually being made according to a separate recipe, then what need would there be to recall every can made for every company during a three month period - unless they all shared common ingredients before being labeled and priced differently?" Yeah, well, when I was a little kid my class at school got a tour of the Leslie Salt plant. I saw with my own eyes the same salt go down the conveyor belt into the one blue cannister, and also, into the cannister labeled "organic sea salt" which, as you might suspect, retailed for a higher price.

Update #2: Here's another interesting link about the problems with commercial pet food.

Update #3: Where have we come to as a society when we don't know how to feed our animals? It's Orwellian.

The pub date for the paperback edition of Miraculous Air is but 2 weeks away... Milkweed Editions has just posted the catalog information here. Yes, it can be pre-ordered. And there's even more ordering information here. Yes, there will be a book tour. Why is there an angel carrying a tiny house on the cover? To find out, click here. More anon.

Monday, March 19, 2007

Here's the latest on the massive pet food recall. And here's more, on Menu Foods. Yes, massive. It should be on the TV news shows tonight. In fact, DC's Fox (channel 5) happened to be filming at Friendship Hospital for Animals this afternoon and got some footage of Picadou, my black pug (she's fine--- just in for a routine checkup). While we were there, someone brought in a very sick cat--- another possible poisoning victim. I've long been an advocate for home cooked food for dogs. It might sound extravagant--- certainly, it's cheaper and easier to just toss a cup o' kibble in that dish--- but if you knew--- really knew--- the gruesome, unwholesome pure yuckiness of what goes into most commercial pet food, believe me, you would not give it to your pet. Read more about the fundamental problems with commercial pet food and get some wholesome and easy to make recipes in Rudi Edelati's Barker's Grub. More anon.

Update: a few links to other blogs. One notes a skanky-looking time-line. Another blogger notes that it took the media a suspiciously long time to get started with this story. PETA has more here. Read Tina Perry's "What's Really For Dinner? The Truth About Commercial Pet Food." Writes Perry, "It is not happenstance that four of the top five major pet food companies in the United States are subsidiaries of major multinational food production companies: Colgate Palmolive (which produces Hills Science Diet), Heinz, Nestle, and Mars... From a business standpoint, multi-national food companies owning pet food manufacturers is an ideal relationship. The multinationals have captive market in which to dump their waste products, and the pet food manufacturers have a direct source of bulk materials. Both make a profit from selling scraps that originate from places far worse than the dinner table." Read on (warning: it's a toe-curler.) I recall reading a few years ago about a very serious in-depth investigation about the pet food industry and its obscenely lax regulation and supervision --- but haven't been able to find a reference to it in the Niagara of articles now on-line. More anon.

My essay about a visit to Maximilian's castle in Trieste, recently published in the Massachusetts Review, has been named a finalist for the O. Henry Award for Best Work of Magazine Journalism, 2006 by the Texas Institute of Letters. Click on the Texas Institute of Letters--- see a very curious squirrel photo. And speaking of people who got completely wrapped around the axle with debt, seems we have more every day here in the USA. Last night I went to see James Scurlock's new documentary Maxed Out. It's jaw-dropping. More anon.

Friday, March 09, 2007

A big week next week in Washington DC: world-famous Mexican cellist Carlos Prieto is coming to the Kennedy Center on March 13th. (Read about his new book, The Adventures of a Cello--- a Stradivarius--- here.) And there is a whole string of events at the Cultural Institute of Mexico-- check it out at 2829 19th St NW tel 202-728-1675: March 15th "Round Table: Say It In Espanol (Spanish in the US / El espanol en los EEUU)" and March 22 "Beatriz Ezban: United Field: The Border Project / Campo Unificado: Proyecto la Frontera."

Wednesday, March 07, 2007

Just back from the AWP bookfair in Atlanta-- so much to blog about! One of the books I was most excited to see is the gorgeous and essential new anthology edited by Margaret Sayers Peden, Mexican Writers on Writing.(Trinity University Press). It includes essays by Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, Rosario Castellanos, Angeles Mastretta, Juan Villoro, Pedro Angel Palou, Carlos Fuentes, Octavio Paz, Ilan Stavans, Juan Villoro, and Jorge Volpi, in addition to a dozen others. The cover painting is "Our Dream" by Mexican artist Alfredo Castaneda. (Peden and Castaneda have collaborated on another book: read about that here.) More anon.

Monday, March 05, 2007

Just back from AWP where the "Beyond the Book" panel with Yours Truly, Richard Beban, Joseph Bednarik, Urayoan Noel, Richard Peabody, and Nancy Zafris brought up about 7,000 fascinating questions. One of the subjects was CDs--- Peabody's audio CD, "31 Arlington Poets" was my inspiration to do "The Essential Francisco Sosa or, Picadou's Mexico City". Peabody said he expected that in the future audio would be downloaded off the 'Net--- itunes and podcasts and the like. (Here's an article that argues the same.) And all of this seems commonsensical... but.... it also seems to me that there is always going to be a need, if a drastically reduced one, for the physical object. The graphic design and "jewel case" of the CD is a kind of wrapping. A gift comes wrapped in paper and tied with a bow. A book, too, has a wrapping-- the cover, the dust jacket. People don't have to, but they do wear clothes. Tea could be dispensed out of a vat, but it also comes in bottles. I have hope. I would expect that CDs themselves may shrink, perhaps down to the size of a coin. But the CD case itself is a good size. It fits in the palm. It can be beautifully designed: a work of art in itself. So: I'm going to do another one. And isn't the CD Baby logo cute? And DVDs! I've just been watching Urayoan Noel's way-out wacky Kool Logic Sessions. More anon.

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VISIT MY OTHER BLOGS (NO, I DO NOT BLOG ALL DAY THOUGH THAT SURE WOULD BE FUN)

The blog for the Marfa Mondays Podcasting Project: Exploring Marfa, Texas & Environs in 24 Podcasts, 2012-2013. All about the podcasts, plus photos, books, videos, and more about Marfa and the Big Bend. This blog and the podcasts are apropos of a work in progress, World Waiting for a Dream: A Turn in Far West Texas.

A once-in-a-while-on-Tuesdays blog to share my (copius) research and other information related to my novel set during the 1860s in Mexico-- that tumultuous period known as the Second Empire or French Intervention.

Finally, after numerous attempts, I tackled the behemoth in 2011. This blog, now closed but ever open for perusal, I kept for myself, for fellow W&P travelers past, present and future, and for my writing workshop students so they can see precisely what I mean by "reading as a writer."